001Good evening. Welcome to the Springboard Area School District Board Meeting. Today is Tuesday, May 27th. Please rise for the pledge of allegiance. Please rise for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge alce to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. The Springford Board of School Directors believes the community has the right to bring before the board issues and concerns they may have about items on the agenda or about items in general which affect the district or their children. Because of this belief and philosophy, the board will schedule a time at the beginning and conclusion of every meeting to have an opportunity for community members to share their concerns with the board. At the start of the
002meeting, members from the public may comment on agenda items only. The school board will move through the meeting agenda. Then at the end, when prompted, there will be a time for public comment. This meeting is being filmed to be broadcast on community cable channels and online. Individuals intending to make public comments should be aware that they are being filmed. Speakers will be asked to state their name in the area in which you reside before your comment. All right. Good evening, everyone. Welcome uh officially. Welcome Miss Schmidt to our board table. our new board secretary. So, Miss Schmidt, can we please have a roll call? Tonight in person, we have Mrs. Goldsmith, Mrs. Wearten, Dr. Wright, Mr. Jackson, Dr. Chararma, Mrs. Westwood, Mrs. Deerorf, Mrs. Herman's, and Mr. Lackey. Leaky Lackey. Sorry, I had it right
003the first time. Okay. All board members are in attendance and in person. Wonderful. As far as announcements go, the board did meet in executive session to discuss a legal matter. Mr. Rizzo, do you have anything? I do not. Thank you. Okay. So, we'll move on to public to be heard on agenda items only. If there's anyone that wishes to speak, please approach the pod. I did not forget about anyone. Mr. Jackson. Thank you. I will make sure that I make mention of Mr. Drover and his presence at tonight's meeting at the appropriate time. But we are excited to have you. So we'll go on to public to be heard on agenda items only. Uh if anyone wishes to speak, please approach a podium with your name, township or residence as well as the agenda item
004for which you are referencing. Okay, seeing as though no one is approaching the podium, we will move on to our first presentation of the night, which is our best communities for music education recognition. We welcome once again Mr. Kelly from Zeswitz to our podium. Uh good good evening. You haven't heard me speak, so don't clap yet. It's all good. Um, on behalf of the NAM Foundation, uh, it is an honor and a pleasure to be here with you, uh, all this evening to, uh, present, I believe it's the 10th year in a row, uh, the NM Foundation's best communities for music education. Uh, I don't come here this evening as an education representative from Zeswitz, but I do get to work with your, uh, entire instrumental and coral staff on a weekly basis. and I
005tell you that they work tirelessly on behalf of the students here uh and the community. Uh but as a representative of the NM Foundation, like to give you a little background and uh of scope to what this award really kind of entails and what it does mean. Um there's just over 14,000 school districts uh in the country. Uh thousands of them do apply for this particular accolade. Uh it is a 35page uh application that that goes into essay questions. It delves into uh deep into what is provided to the students here in the spring for community. Um what the administration provides in terms of facilities and staffing uh as well as um the performance opportunities that are given to the students here in the community. Uh the applications are reviewed by a third party. This
006is not a submitted to the NAM Foundation. Uh and if you get in one year, you you don't get in the or you get in the next. Uh but it's evaluated by the University of Kansas and uh and they they really go over these applications quite um they they do a hard analysis, if you will. This year uh there were only 935 winners of this award. That's a pretty elite group. The number is down from last year actually. I think it was around 975 last year. So the the applications uh the questions and questionnaire do change from year to year as do programs do. Um, but it's a true testament to to the uh the the the teachers here, the administration and and the parents uh that are getting their kids to and from rehearsals
007that are doing fundraising uh that are supporting uh their children in in music as we know or if you don't music makes you smarter. It is a known fact if you take the test scores, the PSSAs, the keystones, and if you took those students that are involved involved in music, band chorus or orchestra that those scores are always higher than the mean within the uh within the school district. So, uh it is my pleasure to once again present to everyone here this evening um this uh this particular award. Um, there's a PR package that I know Miss Crew uh probably blares out, but I did bring something along that we can share a photo op this evening with if you like. Uh, it says the 2025 best communities for music education presented by the NAM
008Foundation. We congratulate you. Springford Area School District for the 202526 year uh and outstanding support of music music education enriching the lives of children and advancing student achievement. So on behalf of the NM Foundation, congratulations. Well done. Thank you, Mr. Kelly. And um you know, I don't like to speak on behalf of the board, but you know, the arts and music in particular is a language that cuts across all languages, all disciplines, and it's super important to continue to support. So, thank you to our uh staff that continue to instill that love of the arts into our children. So, we appreciate you. Um, but we also have some music awards and uh student recognitions to um to make mention of. So, who will be taking the podium? do this. Oh, so every year um that
009I've been here um and this has been this is my 29th year at Springford. um my 17th at the high school and every year there I've been able to share um the joys and the hard work um and the accomplishments of my students um at this board meeting and it's definitely a privilege. It's an honor to work with motivated, talented kids um and you know these guys are exceptionally motivated. Um, it's hard to get learn music and go in front of a room where people are have their backs turned to you and they said, "Okay, here's your pitch. Go and sing." Because this is how these auditions work. Um, so they're walking in and they really have to know the music because they can pick from eight one of eight pieces or two of eight
010pieces. So they've made their way through the system. Um, and we're going we just want to acknowledge um all of the the people you see here today have made the district PMEA um district 11 um choir and then Yoshi and Stephen I'll introduce you in a sec. Um they went on to regionals and then Stephen represented us at the all state. So Steven Cox is our all state. Grayson Dryberg Yoshi K wait Kunarampu. Oh yes. Um it's only taken me two years to learn that. Um and Shannon Rooney. So um very pleased to have these young people representing our music department in this whole area because it's a very competitive district and region. So um it's always great to have students there. So congratulations on your hard work. Um you'll receive your um your proclamation
011tomorrow. So all right. Thank you. Um, I would like to say since I'm up here, are you next? Who's next? Um, this board, uh, and u, Mr. Rizzo, I I can't thank you. We can't thank you enough for everything, uh, the support. Um, Mr. Rizzo, this is going to be a hard one for us, but um, you we really really loved having you here and to conduct on a concert in the spring. Um, that's just that's not something you see every day with superintendent. So, um, we were we are so thrilled that you've been part of this, um, really our music program for, um, you know, I don't I don't even know how many years, not enough. Um, and we love having your children in here and as they're so talented as well. So, um,
012you all of you have talented children. We have more. Um, anyway, so thank you so much and thank you to these guys and Mrs. McGraan will introduce hers. Oh, picture. Come here. Everyone loves and I'm gonna say and then they'll call me Heather tomorrow. You can you can wait over there. Hi, I'm Mrs. McGraan. I'm the orchestra director here and I would like to bring up uh Katherine and Sarah and uh Connor, please. Hey. All right. Uh these three participated in district orchestra this past year. Thank you. And uh this is actually it was a really special district orchestra because we hosted. It was a crazy three days. I slept a total of five hours in three days, but I hope the kids had a really great experience and we had a really fun conductor
013and they put on an amazing concert. It is up on YouTube illegally if you ever want to look at it. One of the kids from GA posted all the videos. So, uh, but thank you all for participating and especially to Katherine for at the last minute, literally the night it started jumping in. Uh, they didn't have a a piccolo player and Katherine is that great that she just walked in on stage and started playing that night with the entire group. So, thank you all so much for making it to district orchestra. U, unfortunately, my students are getting ready. They're performing on Saturday, so they are not here tonight, the string students. Uh, but I would like to also recognize Daniel Chu because he again won the PMEA composition contest. He two out of four years
014that he he applied for three years, two Oh, he didn't. He applied two out of two years and won both times. You can't apply like every other year. So, and he has just been awesome for this program. And now we have an upcoming seventh grader who's composing and he performed their his piece with conducting last week at our outdoor indoor concert. Uh it rained unfortunately so we were inside but thank you to you all and special s shout out to Jason who is now continuing a long line of orchestra students being on the board. So, Alrighty. I think you get the gist of it. The kids are awesome. My name is Andrew Walls. I'm the band director here, and it's kind of the same group of kids because they're involved in so many of these
015things. Uh, one of the things I'd like to to really share that I'm sure is true for our orchestra and our strings program as well is, you know, the students put in so much time and energy to prepare for these special events. Uh, and it's not unlike everything that they do for our district events. They are student leaders in our programs. Uh, and all four of these, you know, kids are seniors. I'm going to miss them a lot. Uh, as student leaders in our program, wonderful players. We got Connor Ellison who played clarinet in district region and all state band this year. Uh we have Thomas Brown who is in district band on tuba. Wonderful wonderful player. Uh we have Katherine Maul who was in uh district region state band for many years and then
016this year all eastern band and we have Sarah Rutkowski who's our bassoon player that I will definitely be missing in the group. It's always nice to have a bassoon and Sarah has been in uh district and region band several times. Great kids. Um and you know, I want to echo what everyone said. Thank you for all your support and thanks to these kids for being great. I'm going to miss them. Thanks. All right. So, with that said, again, congratulations to all of our students, the ones that are here, the ones that couldn't make it tonight. Um I was saying to one of uh our awardees, you know, um I I remember a lot of these folks from when u my children went to meet the instrument night. I know that a lot of folks here
017had children that have gone to meet the instrument night. And it's, you know, it's um such a testament to the character of these students in terms of not just being dedicated to their their art, but also helping to instill that love into our rising fifth uh rising third graders, right? were rising third graders, fourth graders, um because I know that I'll speak for my child, but it really did make a quite an impact when he attended there and was able to work directly with some of the students here tonight. So, thank you guys for everything that you do. All right. Well, if there is nothing else, we'll move on to our action uh our committee reports. So, we will start with Dr. Wright with the Montgomery County Intermediate Unit. Okay, just a moment while I
018pull this up. Here we go. So, the uh Montgomery County Intermediate Unit board met on May 21st. The board celebrated several retirements including Dr. Brad Landis um who has been the assistant director, associate director there, and he is retiring after 41 years in public education. So, we are sorry to see him go. um a one-year agreement was reached with the education association for the MCIU and that was um limited to one year really um a lot of that was because of finding out what would we move forward with federal contracts things like that what's going to happen as you know the um head start and other things are is potentially in jeopardy we did some policy approvals the good news came in that Head Start will be fully funded for the MCIU Um, so there
019were a number of budgets approved for preK counts. The Office of Technology Services, the Office of Early Childhood Services shared the report of the most recent Head Start policy council meeting which included the approval of a Head Start financial report five uh year five grant. So they um there were three agreement services of local districts for the project aware initiatives and I believe we may be one of them. I think that's in our our um yes tonight to be approved and um 10 intergovernmental agreements for shared services were approved. So these are all good things as we continue to move forward. Our next board meeting is Wednesday, June 25th at 7 p.m. at the MCIU. Thank you Dr. Wright for the report. Any questions or comments? Okay, moving on. We have um Western Montgomery Career
020and Technology Center. Mrs. Weingarten. Hello. The JOC at the Western Montgomery Career and Technical Center met on May 5th. Uh our the first piece of business was a presentation. Um Mr. Living Good introduced Dr. James Craft and they talked about the articles of agreement. And you may remember quite a while ago we talked about um the articles of agreement doesn't allow us to have a capital reserve at the western center. So at the end of the year when money is in that kitty it goes back to the three districts and with that there's no buffer when things go wrong money has to be found. Um so we have been talking over the last couple of years about the ability to keep um some if not all of those unused funds and place them into a
021new capital reserve. Um so the goal would be to have a capital reserve contributing about 2.7 million by the year 2030. So there's a lot of techn or a lot of uh financial implications in this. However, um changing the articles of agreement would uh require a significant meeting with all 27 board members. So, all the board members from the contributing schools. So, we'll have more on this as we proceed. So, there's a lot of work to be done, a lot of planning to be done. This is not anything set in stone, but it's something that we're looking at for potentially a January or February 2026 vote. And it has to be a majority vote. Again, there's some complexities into how that would work out. Um, which I can explain if you want or we can
022wait till this progresses. Um, the idea would be to create a 5 to 10year plan and it would be based on a feasibility study by Gilbert Associates as well as the IC reports of projects and new programs. So, that's a really big piece of the business that's been ongoing for quite some time. Uh, Mr. Robinson talked about enrollment. He showed us the various charts, the applications by districts, the percentages, applications accepted. The deadline was March 15th and they will they have reopened it from May 1st to June 5th. So this while there is um always an overflow of students who are not getting into the programs. That's because um the key programs are filled usually right away. uh the number on uh let me just jump ahead. Sorry. He also explained that we're the dissolution
023of the biomemed program which allowed for an additional 20 people in the introduction to medicine program. They can now offer both an AM and PM course and they had to talk about uh accommodating upper perk with an additional lunchtime because of this. So, as you can tell, there's a lot of moving parts as they start evolving this. And the nice thing is, um, as programs become more popular, they have been able to do things like that. Early childhood education this year will become a four-year program, which will increase enrollment by nine students. and um the four programs. Actually, if we hired another then we had a talk about if we hired another instructor um would we be able to increase capacity in some of the more popular programs like carpentry, cosmetology, electrical and welding. So,
024these are always ongoing conversations. Um if we had for example another instructor in cosmetology, we might be able to add 10 additional students. So looking at those numbers, there's always a discussion of how we can accommodate more students. [Music] Um there is an increase of the budget by 2.5 million for salaries in uh equipment, furniture and expansion. So this is all in talks. It's not uh set in stone yet. There were administrative reports from Mr. Living good. The position for assistant principal has been posted and there have been um four applications. Again, this is from three weeks ago. Four applications, three of which had CTE experience, which is great. Uh the senior recognition and awards ceremony was on May 21st. I think Eric uh Mrs. Herman's attended that. And um he also did a report
025about our knocky scores. They were a little bit down this year, but they showed uh 98% growth. Uh 34 students scored competent, 72 scored advanced, and all students in commercial art and culinary arts scored advanced. So, they are looking into what they can do help to help with some of the lower scores. And let's see, Mr. Rizzo disclosed that he is retiring, which we already knew. [Music] Um, our new student orientation is May 28th and the next JOC meeting is at 7 p.m. on June 2nd. And that um, quick question. So, you were asking or you were talking about uh the potential for them establishing effectively like a capital reserve and potentially that being in January. Um, is it a consensus vote of the 27 members to do that? So, it's a little more complicated,
026Mr. Roso. Yeah. Yeah, it's very complicated. It's a lot more complicated because you've got the sending schools and then you've got um the 27 total board members in that total count. So, there are some parameters to that that are all outlined in the articles of agreement so that we know how to proceed. Um what this basically means is as they move in that direction, there's going to be a lot more board involvement. Instead of just the three JOC members, the board's going to have to weigh and decide what they support as well. Okay? And as we progress, we can get into the the weeds of that. It's pretty complicated. Thank you. Uh, you have a question, Mrs. Westwood? So, we can this it piggybacks a little bit off um what Mr. Lackey said, but just
027um the 2.7 million is just for spring for Okay. I was assuming no. Okay. So, we'll talk more about that, but I just wanted to clarify. And the 2.5 you mentioned for personnel and you said it was in talks. Is that something that's 2026? And is there a cost to spring forward for that? No, this is all projection. Okay. Yes. Nothing has it's it's more discussion for the following year. Correct. Yeah. So, um any questions? Mrs. Yordorf, you had mentioned a feasibility study with ICS and then also it was a Gilbane is the other firm. What exactly are they doing with ICS? That was done two years ago. I think hang on we're still awaiting the report on that. It was it was done but it's not it's complete but I think we're waiting on
028the report still. Yeah. Yeah. Feasibility study is an analysis of our building condition and all the equipment at the Western Center. At the Western Center at the Western Center they also which is separate from our report that is currently going on. Yes. You said ICS and Gilbane. Could have heard it wrong. Gilmore. Gilane. I'm asking. So I guess while you're looking that um so ICS is currently working on a feasibility study at the Western Center or or they have already completed one. It's been completed. I think we're awaiting the report at this point. Uh Okay. And we're saying this was two years ago. I I don't I think it was more recent than that. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. So, sorry. I So, I guess what kind of feedback do the sending boards have about the
029selection of of who they're using for these projects? It's something that the board discussed. the Joocc I don't know that the 27 members of Potts Grove would ha and Upper Perk and Springford would have a say but the nine Joocc members that would be something that would be discussed and it already has been because they were correct it's already been discussed been mentioned voted on and completed um so I will just make mention One more thing. I know you mentioned Mr. Lackey about the and I'll just call it for lack of a better term the convention of 27 board members. I will tell you that um Mr. for living good makes a uh hard bargain, drives a hard bargain as he said that, you know, if we decide to go this route in terms of
030having all 27 board members in attendance because there are some options with how we may decide to do this that uh we would be um treated to the food by our very talented culinary students at the Western Center, which is always it's always a nice perk. So anyway, thank you. So more to come on that. Yes, more to come as we get closer. Thank you. Okay, so we'll move on to Mrs. Westwood, the Montgomery County School Directors Legislative Committee. Good evening. The um Montgomery County Legislative Committee met virtually on Wednesday, May 7th. Um we were joined by Laura Rest, I might say her name wrong, Rest Strepo from Senator um Senator Federman's office. Um she talked to us a bit. She's a leazison for Buckschester, Delaware, and Montgomery counties. and she talked a little bit
031about some of the bills that are coming into the Senate um that were recently introduced. One was full funding of IDA. So, this would be about 40% of the total cost of special education. The second was, and we spent more time talking about this one, um school meal modernization and hunger elimination act. Um the bill basically provides the USDA the proper funding to expand access to free and reduced lunch. Um it would also expand the direct certification process. Um there was a lot it sounds like to be figured out by that, but it was just something that was mentioned. Um so I'll share more as I get additional details. Um she asked that if the group had any um requests or prior priority requests that we wanted the senator to look into, they could be
032funneled to members. So I'll put that out to the board. If there's anything that you're interested in making sure gets in front of Senator Fenderman's office, I'm happy to be a liazison to send it her way. Um she also mentioned that schools should be thinking about the um fiscal year 27 congressional directed spend or also called CDS um proposals that we may want to be submitted. She explained they should be infrastructure projects not programming. She suggested sending a summary to her of what the idea may be. Um while Senator Federman's um fiscical year 26 request portal is closed. Senator McCormick's at least at the time of this meeting I can't speak for now was still opened. Um after the discussion the committee discussed increasing challenges with tax assessment appeals. That is a conversation we have
033had lots of times um at this table. Um it was suggested this may need to be an advocacy priority for next school year. Um addition additionally the group discussed a legislative breakfast. We debriefed that last month so I won't go into that um again but the next meeting is scheduled for June 4th at 6 pm and we'll be joined by um state senator Maria Colette. Any questions? Thank you, Mrs. Westwood. Mrs. Goldmith, PSBA. The only update this evening that's on the agenda is that we do it's that time of year where we appoint new delegates for the PSBA assembly. Um, we have to send three and um I believe that's later on tonight. Correct. And um I know at least I was copying to an email to Miss Miss Schmidt. Have you you've received some
034responses from board members who have interest in in participating in the delegate assembly? Correct. It's your f It's your first meeting. I'm putting you on the spot. I'm sorry. You are. Um I don't believe so. I I know Mrs. Westwood did Mr. I'm sorry. Yes, you did. I do recall that now. Okay. So then the question is we can do up to three and we can have that conversation at the end when we get to that action or we get to thatformational item. Okay. Thank you. And then um Spring City American Legion, Mr. Lackey. Thank you. Um, Spring City American Legion baseball met on Thursday, April 24th. Uh, there's just two items I want to bring back to the board. The first is that the Legion is looking into repairing and replacing the padding on
035the outfield walls that go on the top. Uh, right now they're just trying to determine the cost. And the other thing is that the Legion is hosting a regional tournament from July 18th to 22nd at Rams Stadium. Uh, the c the tournament will be a total of 14 games taking place over the span of five days. The next meeting will be this Thursday, May 29th. Uh, and that concludes my update. Thank you. I have a question. Yes, Mrs. Westwood. Do they ever give us the schedule for the tournament? Like, if we wanted to come? Um, I believe it's on their website. Okay. And they they usually post their schedule and then the results on the website. I'm just going to look real quick. Looks like it. I can send it to you. Mr. Reese sent
036me a link. All right. Thank you. Any other questions? Mr. Rizzo, superintendent report. Yeah. Uh, just a couple of very brief items. First of all, retirees. Um, Debbie Boland, instructional assistant at Providence for 5 years. Terry Cameron, instructional assistant at Evans for 20 plus years. Um, Alice Hollingsworth, instructional assistant at Royers Ford for nine years. Uh, George Kolage, head custodian at the Flex for 26 years. Charlene Krauss, uh, secretary at the high school, the 10th through 12 for 20 years. Diane O'Brien, instructional assistant at Evans for 19 years. Kathy Rice, administrative assistant at maintenance for 10 years totaling. Uh those individuals have dedicated over 109 years serving our spring for students and we are thankful for their uh service. Thank you. Next, just a reminder, next year is I think a pretty important week for
037a few people. Uh graduation next Wednesday is on next Wednesday, June 4th. Uh the rain date is Thursday, June 5th. Last student day is June 5th. Last teacher day is June 6th. And then our next work session is Monday, June 16th. So with only seven days of seven student days left in the school year, on behalf of the administration, we do wish everybody a fantastic end to their year and a nice and relaxing summer. That's the end of my report. I'm going to knock on wood, but it doesn't look like we need that rain day because I think next Wednesday as of now is looking pretty gorgeous. So I'm hoping it. Knock on wood. Um, with that said, we have Miss Shore from Fox Rothschild with us. Mr. Fitzgerald, um, has his Tuesday Phoenixville meeting.
038So, we welcome you. Solicitor's report. Uh, I have no report, but I want to thank Bob, uh, for all of his, uh, dedication on behalf of Fox Rothschild to the Springford Area School District. You will be missed. Thank you. If I may, Madam President, I do have a comment on this on the superintendent report. Yes, sir. I would like to uh give a big shout out to Kathleen Rice. Um, as Mr. Rizzo talked about her, um, she worked down in the maintenance department. I've had the pleasure of working with her as the board chair of property for the last six years. I think she would be a very hard person to to replace. Her knowledge of the construction and indust and and the engineering industry amazed me at many times. Yes, Mr. Dan P is
039the director, but Kathleen was the glue that kept that department together. So, I will surely miss her. Thank you. Thank you. I very much appreciate that personal message. It's a nice touch. Um, so any other questions or comments on superintendent or solicitor's report? If not, we will move on to the voting portion of our meeting. As a reminder to the community, these are items that we have discussed in committee and likewise at the work session last week. So, of course, if there are any outstanding questions, feel free to um separate the items as we go through. And just as a reminder as we have Miss Schmidt to please ensure since uh she may not be as familiar with our voices and yet to please use your mic as we are going through this. So um
040section six minutes A and B. Do I have a motion? So moved. Is there a second? Second. Questions and discussion. All those in favor say I. I. I. Are there any opposed? Motion carries. 90. Moving on to personnel. Section seven, letters A through P. Is there a motion? So moved. Is there a second? Second. Any questions or discussion? All those in favor say I. I. I. Any opposed? No. The motion carries 81. I just want to say thank you um for the board for supporting the contract for Dr. G and Dr. Murray. And then welcome to Dr. Edwards who's sitting in the audience. we welcome you to the 10th through 12 and we know you're going to do a great job. So, thank you. Yes, congratulations, Dr. Edwards. And I said this last week, but
041I will say it um in the room with you now. Um not just speaking as a board director, but as a parent of a ninth grader, I've been very impressed with your leadership um in in that building specifically, but overall at Springford. So, I wish you well and excited for this next uh phase of your career. Okay. All right. Moving on to section 8, finance, letters A through H. Can we Could we separate F? We can separate F. I'm sorry, I said H. It's let me correct myself. This is section 8, finance letters A through I. and we will separate F. Okay. Okay. So, let's take section 8, finance letters A through H minus F. I keep saying freaking H. A this is how we're going to this how we're going to end things between
042you and me. All right. So, section 8 A through I minus F. Do I have a motion? So moved. Is there a second? Second. Okay. questions or discussion. Uh quick question on I is this the same rate going forward the current rate? I thought I read something on this but uh in the memo it or in the uh in the motion there's a five represents a $5 per hour increase. All right. Thank you. Any other questions? Yeah. Did we um since this was at newly added so did we follow policy on this board policy because I think there is some a policy that addresses um the renewing of the contract for our legal services. We we did follow policy. Yeah, we approved last year in June. Um no, we're we're in alignment with policy. Thank
043you. Yep. Any other questions? Mrs. Herman, this is Mr. Frink in the back. Um I I just want to point out that we separated F. I goes hand I'm sorry. E goes hand in hand with F. Okay. So if we if you know what I mean. So if we're voting on those, one can't pass without the other. Okay. So I make a motion to separate E. Separate E as well. I'm looking at Beth. Are we okay or do we need to amend the current motion? I would amend the current motion to do that. All right. So, we are going to So, I need someone to make a motion to amend the current motion to include E. Who would be likely to do that? I would like to make an amendment to the motion to um
044exclude E from the finance section. In addition to F. In addition to F. Thank you. And that does not require a second. Correct. Do we need to make public comment? You you can you can do it. So, is there anyone that would like to approach the podium to make public comment on the rem uh the separation of F and E together? If so, please approach the podium with your name and township of residence. Okay, seeing as though no one is approaching the podium, all those in favor of separating F and E together say I. I. I. Any opposed? Okay, that motion carries 90. So, we will go back to our motion and we will be looking at section 8 letters A through I minus F and E. Okay, Mr. F gave me the thumbs up.
045I'm good. Any other um do I have I will say do I have a motion? So, okay. Is there a second? Second. questions and discussion. Okay. All those in favor say I. I. I. Any opposed? Motion carries 90. So seeing as though Ephanie have to go hand in hand. I will take them together. So we are looking at section 8 letters E and F. Do I have a motion? So move. Is there a second? Second. questions and discussion. I have a question. Um, at the last at the meeting last week, I had asked if um the board had an interest in advising the administration on kind of next steps in how we're going to be handling um, you know, financial planning. And we had talked about uh maybe June, maybe August. And I I don't
046know that we had a firm. So I in order, you know, to before I make my vote on this, I I would prefer to have um whether we want to talk about picking a date right now. So Mr. Rizzo and I have already talked about the agenda for the June work session and that was actually going to be part of my board comment today is to circle back to that. Yes, we will be having a presentation at the work session in June that will start the conversation on looking at the three buckets and talking about some of the work that administration has done to talk about systematic changes in the district. So, uh the work session in June. Thank you. Can I make a comment as well? Unless Mrs. Derdorf, do you have anything else?
047No. Um just a a statement maybe as well. So, um similar to Mrs. Derdorf though, I'd ask this question. the the only one of the only reasons um that I'm more comfortable with moving forward the decision at least that I'm going to make personally as one board member is because we're going to start those conversations in June and we've looked very deeply at the budget but I know we're going to take an even closer look so I'm looking forward to that and the conversation at the table and to public input but we've spent lots of time and some of you have been in the audience to listen to this talking about these different scenarios and none of them are good in my personal opinion but we need to move the district forward and we need
048to make sure that it it's financially stable and that we can continue to pay for great talent, which we have. A lot of those people are in this room now, and programs like the great music and the folks that you saw on here and um infrastructure and we can't do that if we don't have enough funds to do so. Thank you very much. Any other questions or comments? So just gohead just just for clarity. So this easy discussion is going to start in June and part of the agenda will be will be each department for lack of a better term will be presenting their plan of spend. So we would have a greater understanding of what the numbers are. So um that seems like a little bit of a leading question. So we have not
049gotten that deep into exactly how the presentation will be structured. We know that the administration has done some work. We want to bring that forward to start the conversation in lie of the fact that Mr. Rizzo, you know, has been spearheading this with his directs and we want to make sure that we can start the conversation before his retirement. Um, so with that said, if there is a will to see certain things, I would say please email Mr. Rizzo and copy me and we can start to think about how that presentation will be structured so that it can meet the needs of the board members. Well, you're correct. It was a leading question. Um, I know you. I've called it out. I'm just thinking if you're going to talk about finances, you got to know
050where the finances stand for the next spin. That's all I'm saying. I'll be happy to write a very long email. Happy to talk. Thank you. All right. Any other questions or comments? Dr. Wright, did you have your hand up? Uh, yeah. Well, yes. I was preparing to have my hand up. Yeah. since I just wanted to um continue you know that my feelings on this and as many of you know this is my second term on the board and I've been talking with about the budget for quite some time in the way we approach it and again once again I'll say that I respect all of those that work on the budget however um I feel that um that there's still time the budget's not due to be signed until June 30th and those talks
051and everything that we are talking about having beginning in June could have could still be taking place right now and we could still be working on trying to bring this budget in line more. So that being said is why I asked that this be separated and there need not be any response to it. I'm just making my personal views. Thank you. Thank you. Noted. Appreciate it. Any other questions or comments? Okay. All those in favor say I. I. I. Any opposed. Opposed. Opposed. Okay. So, I heard three opposed. Mrs. Goldmith, Dr. Wright, and Dr. Sharma. Is that correct? So, the motion carries 63. I'm just making sure Miss Schmidt caught that. Thank you very much. Okay, moving on to section nine, property, letter A. Do I have a motion? So moved. A second. Second. Any
052questions or discussion? All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed? No. Okay. The motion carries. 81. Moving on to Moving on to programming and curriculum. Letters A through T. C. Can we pull out letters M? I'm sorry, L [Music] through Q and then also S. Okay, so let me just make sure I have this correct. We want to look at section 10, but you want to pull out letters L through Q and also S. Correct. Okay. Any others? Madam President, can we pull out uh T? Okay, I will also pull out T. Any others? Okay. Could you um repeat what's being extracted? Sounds like Jeff. Yes. What is being extracted is letters L through Q. S N T. It's L through Q. Correct. Because I hear some people questioning that. L through Q. So
053L M N O. Okay. All righty. Any others? S and T are also included. I did not include S and T. No. Correct. You did not. K. Y'all are testing me. A through K plus R. That's what we're doing now. Okay. All right. So, we're looking at section seven. No, I lied. Y'all messing me up. Section 10, programming curriculum A through K plusR. Do I have a motion? Okay. So, S&T or and tear out. Correct. Correct. Do I have a motion? We hear a so moved from Dr. Chararma. Is there a second? Second. Mrs. Wingarten second. Any questions or discussion? All those in favor say I. I. I. Are there any opposed? No. Motion carries. 81. Okay. So, I'm going to go to Mrs. Gold's. You know what? I'm just going to do them all
054separately. I think we just do them all separately. I know that you said L through Q together, but Mrs. Goldsmith, are you okay if I do them separately? That's fine. Okay. So, we'll take um letter L, programming curriculum, letter L. Do I have a motion? So, move. A second. Any questions or discussion? I I had a question. My recollection is that both, and I know we're keeping them separate, but it will relate to M2 is that we had already voted on this. It was voted no and now it's back. And I just wanted to ask our solicitor procedurally, what is the process by which we're able to rebr something to the agenda? Do we just bring it back to committee or what's the procedure on that? I think I'm a little confused because this is
055the first time it's heard on the agenda today. No. So, Mrs. Goldsmith, we talked about the as a committee member on curriculum. I know that we definitely talked about this and there were no objections raised when we talked about this. So you are correct. A lot of uh some of these action items did not pass last month and Mr. Rizzo and administration I know there was kind of an ask to get clarity on whether it did not pass as a result of the cost or it did not pass as a result of the work. Mr. Lackey as chair of curriculum had a conversation with Dr. Hilt and felt that it should be discussed again in curriculum. It was the will of the curriculum committee, not unanimous, but it was the will of at least three
056members of the curriculum committee to bring it again forward to see if as a result of the information in the memo that some of the perspectives hadn't changed. So that is why we see it here is because your committee brought it forward. I I'm aware of what happened. My question though is I want to confer with legal counsel that we followed the procedure correctly because we did not have legal counsel at the committee meeting and I just want to ensure that we all know the process by which if there is a vote on an item and it is voted no. What is the proper procedure to which to bring that back to a revote effectively the committee can decide to send it back to the entire board for a revote. There is no procedure that
057governs how the committee needs to handle it once it's sent back to committee so long as they decide to send it back to the board. Okay. So, anytime there is a no vote, it can be brought back to the committee and then it can be brought back to the board. Is that accurate? Okay. Yes. Great. Thank you. Thank you for the clarification, Miss Shore. Um I just want to Are you done or Okay, we are on letter L questions and discussion. So, do you have a question? Yeah. So, I just want to talk a little bit about L and it also pertains to M. Um, so I'm just going to talk a little bit from my background in the technology field. So L&M really deal with the backbone of the infrastructure that kind of supports
058like all the internet of things devices. A lot of this infrastructure when it was first put in, the district only had about a thousand devices. Now it's over about 40,000. Um, at the time the infrastructure was put in, lots of things changed as far as how we use it use the internet in terms of the bandwidth and the traffic that goes through it. So for example like the quality of the video has you know increased dramatically. Um video conferencing is you know prevalent whereas before it wasn't. Um and uh you know one of the questions that came up during committee uh actually for property was uh will like certain devices work on the infrastructure if we don't do anything and you know the answer to that question is yes. So from like a compatibility standpoint,
059things will work. But really, you know, failure to replace or enhance these uh items can lead to many different unpleasant things that I think has a day-to-day impact on how we are really fun, you know, how we uh how we do business. Um you know, you've probably experienced these things in your day-to-day at work or at home. You know, intermittent connectivity, downgraded bandwidth heavy activities like uh video streams. uh if we're talking about security cameras, it can impact uh the quality of the the feed that can come through or if there's issues uh bringing up in a a live fashion. Um and so you know I think there is a just my personal perspective I think there is a real risk um that by not investing in this infrastructure we'll see a direct impact on
060our ability to do business and ultimately support our students and staff. Now, the last thing I'll say about this is if we want to make a strategic decision away from some of these items, um because we don't want to use, you know, smart panels or something like that, I think that's a a larger discussion to be had and I think from a strategic standpoint, um that's something that's hard to pivot uh if we just kind of say no to some of these items. So, um I do want to close out by saying like we've had some really good discussion at the committee meetings and at the table. I understand some of the counterarguments to uh moving forward with these things. Um this is just my opinion that I feel there's a risk in not moving
061forward with it. So thank you. Thank you Mr. Lackey. And if I could So my question here Mr. Laki will be you said this backbone hasn't been changed since we had 1,000 devices up to 40,000 devices. I don't know where that information is coming from. So I'll take it that came from uh Dr. Hill in committee in the board members. So the fiber optic is not being changed out. Correct. Correct. I asked this question two weeks ago. If nothing happened, would the system fall apart? And the answer was no. So fiber optics is not being switched out here. It's either yes or no. Um so the fiberactive I believe it's already in. Yeah, that was the category one. Category two, you know, it's easy to get these things confused, but the second item has to
062do with cabling. I'm not confused. Okay. He's not suggesting you are. He's making a statement. Do my rebuttal. Well, you don't need a rebutt. He's trying to answer your question. Yeah. So, I think there's, you know, there's the connection into the district and then there's the connectivity with you're within the district and some of these items pertain to the infrastructure in the buildings that deliver that fiber optic that you're talking about. So, I don't want to speak for Dr. Hill who's not here, but um Mr. Westwood. There's a specific point in the memo just because I have it pulled up. So what it say Mr. Mr. Jackson and I'm trying to cite a fact so your question is informed. I'm not asking for that. I'm asking that's fine. She's not directing it to you. She's
063making a comment. It's a general comment for anybody that wants to hear. There are over 21,000 district devices connected to the network Monday through Friday. In eight out of 12 of the buildings, the infrastructure was installed at a time when there were fewer than 1,000 devices per Mr. Lackey's comments connected district-wide, which were at a time where all wired devices. In addition, 20,000 devices connected the guest network for a total of over 40,000, another figure used, daily connected devices. There's a lot more in here, but it's many more devices than originally stated per Mr. Ly's point. Thank you for bringing that forward to the community. So, let me finish if I may, please. Yes, you may. So yes or no? Fiber is not being changed out. Fiber being changed. Fiber optics into be specific. Okay,
064I'm being specific. We have fiber that's into the system now. That is a part of the overall connectivity. Fiber is not being changed. What's being changed out are the brackets. Am I correct? So, I mean, I want to Here's the thing. The infrastructure in the building isn't fiber. So, I don't want to answer a different question than you're asking. So, the fiber is what gets it to the district. The cabling within the building is what gets it to everybody else. So, the cabling in the building is going to change as part of these part of it. So, we're just paying for cabling and brackets. The simple answer to your question, Mr. Jackson, is no. We are not changing any fiber optics. We paid for that lease last month. To your point, what we're talking about
065here is the cabling within the district that the fiber optics will feed. That's what we're talking about. So, what size cable are we changing out to enhance this connectivity? What size cable? Yeah. I couldn't tell you the specific, you know, the I'm just trying to understand since I'm being asked to vote for something. So, I'm just trying to get clarity. I appreciate the and I can appreciate that desire to try to get clarity on a vote, but we've also talked about this in committee for two months as well as the work session last week for which Dr. Hilt was here and no question was raised. So, um I'm sorry that at this point it but that doesn't take away from the question nor should take away from someone being able to answer it. You are
066correct. It does not take away from the question, but um at this point, you know, uh the question could have been sent ahead of time and maybe we could have gotten you the clear answer to be able to confidently vote, but we will have to do our best in voting. But madam president, this is a pretty basic question. That's very basic. That's that is I appreciate that opinion. Okay, any other questions? Just one more very quick thing. Just as a reminder, the current cabling is 15 to 25 years old and was actually installed before Chromebooks even existed. So if that gives you a sense of how old this is, it's it's very old. Okay. Any other questions or comments? Comment. Um so until today the Chromebooks are working, correct? Just sure. So uh comment there's
067a lot of action items which are adding up in this section. So is there a way to we are on L only right now? So is your question specific? Uh L can wait few months and then can be brought back to the table to discuss if that can be at this point. I don't know that it's going to be the will of the committee to bring it forward again. So I would say just vote your conscience at this point in terms of how you need to proceed. Thank you. Okay. So, any other questions with Bill? Okay. All those in favor say I. I. I. I. Any opposed? No. No. No. Okay. So, I have a no from Dr. Wright, no from Mr. Jackson, and no from Dr. Chararma. So, it passes 63. No. No. I'm
068sorry. It passes 54. My apologies. Mrs. Goldmith is also a no. Okay. Moving. Did I get that right? I just want to clarify because I didn't call a roll call this time as not to we good mishmitt okay thank you so moving on to um section 10 programming and curriculum letter M do I have a motion so moved is there a second okay all the uh any questions or discussion I just had a again because I pulled it out I think it's important and I I appreciate and I recogize what you know Mr. Le was saying in terms of the importance of technology. I think we all most of us here are sitting around with with devices and so we use technology or we have devices here for me though and I'm going to quote
069Mr. Jackson to a certain extent is that we are at the shop we're in a shopping cart and we have so many things left. We have just again approved a budget that is looking to go to 5 whatever tax rate or I'm sorry 5.14 tax rate. There are still the only room we have left in the budget to make any difference for this budget year is unfortunately the large ticket items that are coming from technology. So I don't want there to be a perspective that from the no votes are no to not supporting technology which I think can be seen but rather a no to saying right now we are going to have to have some hard discussions where we may change our opinions on this and that's where some no votes are coming from.
070Can we clarify it's for next year not this year. Correct. Right. Yes. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions or comments? Yeah, I just want to make one more comment. I do think there's a little bit of a sense of urgency just in terms of understanding what might happen to rate next year. Um so um right now if we pass these items we are eligible for a 50% reimbursement. If those funds aren't available next year then it costs more. Okay. So I understand the point of view and you are making a comment. It does not need a rebuttal. If you have another comment to make, that's fine. But please make it general and do not direct it to someone and let them know that their opinion is invalid. I I have never said anyone's opinion. I'm
071just saying and that that I I take a personal offense for that because I think I acknowledge David in terms of the fact that I thought he got a very valid opinion. I didn't direct that to you. I made it generally to all the board. So as we go through all of these action items, so in in terms of you know I think that the whole point of this was to add clarity to why some of us myself at least I'll speak for myself are voting no and so that there isn't a recognition because I do think the the work that Mr. Lackey does as head of that committee is very important and a very valid and again I don't want the no vote to be seen as a situation of a rejection of that
072hard work. We appreciate that. I I Mr. Locky, I respect the work that you do on this board. Thank you. All right. Any other questions or discussion? All those in favor of letter M say I. I. I. Any opposed? No. No. So, same four. So, we are going with 54 passing. Okay. Moving on to letter N. Student mobile device purchase. Do I have a motion? So moved. Is there a second? Second. Any questions or discussion? I have a question. If this doesn't pass, what is the plan for the students in grades four and eight? Okay. So, when I talked to Dr. Hild about this, if we do not if we choose not to do the refresh, then we will be using 5-year-old devices and and the devices reclaimed from 12th grade and that we have
073around will be issued to the new students. Um, and we'll just have devices that are year older. Uh, it is not the recommendation of Dr. Hilt, nor is it of the administration to not do this right now without a purposeful plan for how we're going to move forward with refresh. I think it's a bigger conversation if this is an item that you're interested in not doing. To clarify as well, they're out of warranty after year four. And also, I think Dr. Hilt mentioned that the resale value goes up. Is that accurate? That is accurate. Um the intent is that that's part of the refresh is that they can be sold um now so we can get some return of funds but next year we will not be able to. Thank you. Any other questions? I
074I had a question to piggyback is so it would be possible given the fact that what we discussed earlier was a no vote now it could be brought back like a no is not a no for forever. So, is it a situation, just so I'm clear, it is possible for us to no vote this and and if it didn't pass after larger discussions took place and maybe we were all on the same page of what the technology refresh should occur at what stage, we could be bringing this stuff back at a later board meeting. Am I understanding that correctly? So, procedurally, I think you're understanding that correctly, but I'd say that's a pretty bad practice to do because we have to plan and we have to order. So if we choose to say no now
075and then we come back a month later with this or whatever else we do uh that makes it difficult for my team to plan accordingly. So at this point again I recommend approving it. I understand the concerns that the board this is budgeted funds for 2526 and you approve that budget and we're going to talk about other ways that we can make some savings. We can generate some savings including technology um as we move forward. I would just say again uh we could vote no to this and bring it back procedurally. I just don't know that that's the best step at this point. If I can add to that as well, I did speak with um Dr. Hilt about this as well and if we do decide not to move forward tonight and at a
076later time they will not be in we will not be able to receive them in time for the school year. So that is one factor that we know for sure we won't have them in time. And do you also lose the pricing potentially? Potentially. I can't say for sure but potentially. Are there any other questions or comments? Okay. All those in favor say I. I. I. Any opposed? No. No. No. Okay. So, that motion passes. 63. Mrs. Schmidt, do you do you are you good with the names? Okay. Jackson Leno. All right. So, moving on to letter O under programming curriculum. Do I have a motion? Is there a second? Second. Any questions or discussion? All those in favor say I. I. I. Any opposed? No. No. All right. That motion carries 54. Moving on
077to letter P. Do I have a motion? move. Is there a second? Second. Questions or discussion? All those in favor say I. I. I. Any opposed? No. No. No. passes. Okay. Moving on to letter Q, which I think was the last of the We'll have to get the S&T, but letter Q. Okay. Do I have a motion? So moved. A second. Second. Questions or discussion? All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed? No. No. Passes 54. Okay. Moving on to letter S. Do I have a motion? Is there a second? Second. Questions and discussion? All those All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed? No. No. Is that 63, Dr. Wright? 63. Okay, that motion carries 63. Moving on to letter T. Do I have a motion? Um, can I just make a
078quick comment? No, we need a motion first. Oh, who's making my motion? Second. All right, so that was Mrs. Weard on the first, Mrs. Westwood on the second. questions or discussion. Mr. Lackey, sorry. Um, so I just want to highlight that the purpose of this is really to protect us from things like malware and ransomware and remediation if a device is compromised. So Dr. Hill provided this information during the committee meeting. Um, but I just want to reiterate it here. The average cost for recovery remediation without the service for a K to2 institution is $3.76 million. Um so and it is something we've seen uh happen in the air you know in the state. Yeah. Um just wanted to highlight that. So we've talked about this in prior years of the world is going to
079come to an end and we put a service in place. So is this service better than what we currently have? I I don't know that I could speak to that. Um Dr. Hill could have last week. Um I would say that he's coming in with a lot of expertise and this is what he prefers to use. Well, that's the best I can give you right now. Yeah. Well, we had this when Mr. Catalano was here because of a very similar discussion that we were concerned about school districts um computer systems being taken over and I know we had a different program. So, I'm just asking is this supposed to be better than the current program that we have? That's all. I could just simply say that in my uninformed opinion, yes, if that helps. Okay.
080Any other questions or discussion? I'm sorry. Was that for S or for T? It's for T. For T. We're on T. All those in favor say I. I. I. Any opposed? No. I hear one. No. 81 passes. is 81. Okay, moving on to section 11, conferences and workshops, letter A. Do I have a motion? Is there a second? Second. Questions and discussion. All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Motion carries 90. Moving on to section 12, other business letters B through I. Section 12. Section 12. Did I say section 12? Other business letters B through I. What about A is first read. B is in boy through I. Okay. Do I have a motion? So move. Is there a second? Second. Any questions or discussion? Okay. All those in favor say I. I.
081Any opposed? Motion carries. 90. Okay. And that takes us toformational items and uh let's talk about the 2025 PSBA delegate assembly. I know Mrs. Westwood you sent a note to Miss Schmidt to um share your interest in attending again. Are there any other board members? Now, it is not a requirement, but we can send up to three. And as someone who has attended, I do find it very um interesting to get together with um school directors across the state to hear their perspectives and you can also attend in person or virtual. Well, Miss Schmidt, you can add me to the list. Um and if there is anyone else that has a desire, please reach out to Miss Schmidt between now and the deadline. When is the deadline, Miss Schmidt? I'm putting you on the spot
082again. It'll just it'll be on the next month's agenda. It'll be on the next month's agenda. So, if you could just um get in touch with Mishmid before the vote voting meeting in in June, that would be appreciated. Okay. And if there is any if there ends up being two people, I'm happy to give up my spot. All right. Um we have some tenure and again donation acceptance. So, we appreciate that donation um to the ninth grade center. and we'll move on to board comments. I do have a handful, one of which was already addressed with regards to our meeting in June, the work session, but I will defer to everyone else first before I make a comment. Uh, at last week's meeting, I also asked the board if there was an interest that was
083Yep. Go ahead. Take it take it away. In um recording our committee meetings and posting them on YouTube. So, I was wondering uh what our next steps are for that. I support that and I think it's just a matter of understanding the will of the the the board. So I do support that. Miss Deerdorf, I think you support that. Are there three other people that would support that? Yeah, Mr. Lackey, Mrs. Goldsmith, and Mrs. Westwood. So it does seem like so is the will of the board to have our committee meetings recorded. So may I ask a question to this item? The same question I asked last week since it it appears and this is not a leading question, Madam President. It appears that um we want to address um greater communications with the community,
084but they will be able to watch it. But if they have questions, how do they get the questions answered since they're not policy doesn't allow them to come to the table at the board meeting or at the committee meeting to ask a question of a meeting that they just witnessed. So my intent in that is not to allow for it. So I guess that's a very one-dimensional view. My my reason for saying yes is less about how did you put it? the greater communication with the community and it's more about just giving our community more modalities, more avenues to be able to stay engaged with the conversations that are happening. As far as communication goes, the avenues for communication still still hold. So my question is we're giving them additional additional footage of a live
085meeting. So my question is given this new information and if they have questions of this new information that we're sharing with them, there is currently no medium for them to ask any questions of the information that we're sharing with them. There's a chain of command and email. And so if I mean again I'm just going to be hypothetical here, but if you had a question about you watched a curriculum meeting and you had a question about curriculum, you could email Dr. Gardy and copy our chair of curriculum, Mr. Lackey. Um, if you had a question about a work session conversation, you could copy Mr. Rizzo and copy me as board president. So, the the nothing changes with how the community decides to engage with it. For me, it's more flexibility in them being able to
086again stay engaged with the conversations that are happening at the board. But it's that's the same mode of operations right now. So, that's why I'm trying to understand what's the point of giving them the information other than they come back with the same emails that we answer or we don't answer dependent on how the how the email is written and who it comes from. No, I think you raised a good point, Mr. Jackson. Procedurally, in terms of asking questions, whether they watch on Zoom or watch a recording of Zoom there, the way they can communicate with the administration is the same. That doesn't change. Um, the benefit to having them recorded is that you do have essentially an archive that you can go back and listen to a conversation. you know, our you board members,
087respectfully, you all have busy lives. You know, this is your second job, maybe your third job, not your first. Um, so if you have time and you need to go back and watch a curriculum committee meeting to hear the discussion, you would have that opportunity. So, it's really about providing the board with more information because I know in the past I remember having back and forth engagement at comm community at community meetings and I know I think the policy I guess has changed and thank you. The policy was not changed. The policy was not followed. And we're talking about policy nine on the board. Those are two separate topics. Two separate topics. So we're talking about allowing Zoom, which it sounds like the will of the comm the board is to to allow that to
088happen. So Miss Grrew, if there's anything between now and June that you need. I just wanted to clarify this would begin with our committee meetings in June or in August. I would say in June. Okay. I would say in No. Why August? We just made the will of the board clear. Yeah. As long as you have no impediments to doing it, let's Yeah, we're good. Thumbs up. As we talked last week, it's not labor intensive. And Andrew could give us another one of those big smiles that you did last week. There we go. Thank you. Yeah. Thanks, Andrew. All right. So, June it is. All right. I do I do know, excuse me. I don't mean to to belabor this, but um at the time when we had made some changes to the policy had
089been there had been changes back when we were recording and doing Zoom or people could make comments at board meetings and at committee meetings. I I know we took a look at the policies and we looked at the ARs there. So when we're looking at this, I do want to make sure that it does align with the policies whether because I don't remember and I don't have it in front of me whether we had said in the policy the committee meetings were not um recorded. So never said I just want to make sure we're following our policies. I will verify but I do believe that this is okay per our policy. I don't think we put I don't think we precluded that in our policy but I'll check it out. Thank you. Yep. Yeah. Thank
090you. Good point. All right. So, any other board comment? One comment. Yes. Thank you for the Thank you for the yearbooks. Um, do I have to pay for it this year? I I paid last year, so I just wanted to make sure I'm not taking away any dollars away from the district. U, these were budgeted for the school board to have access to. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Okay. Any other comments or questions before I go into Well, at least two of them were taken. So, um, I want to start officially by saying, Mr. Droer, you've gotten through your first board meeting. How does it feel? Welcome to the table. Good. Thank you for having me. [Laughter] Leave while Leave while you can. All right. Yeah. Well, we will look forward to your student report.
091If not in June, definitely when we get back in August. So, welcome. Okay. All right. Um, Miss Schmidt, you got through your first meeting. It's actually the same thing for you. Good job. Good job. We're not done yet. All right. So, I'll hold off on that. Um, the So, my last board comment is around um you know, Mr. Dr. Rizzo, you had mentioned last week your retirement. And you know, I did notice that as you were giving your superintendent report, you did not include your years of public education in that 109 years of service. So, I would be remiss if we didn't mention that. Um, I do think it is important to update the community on kind of where the board is with regards to next steps. Um, so the board has met in exec
092session. So, um, of course, you know, Mr. Rizzo, you know, your retirement is, you know, it's going to be, you know, and I'll speak only for myself, um, as someone who has worked very closely with you over the last three years, I know that you've done a lot to shape the district and to shape Springboard into what it is today. And so, you know, you are going to be deeply missed. Um, but I also want to acknowledge that um, in terms of some of the proactive steps that the board is currently taking. So we know that any superintendent position is a very significant role. So it is important not to rush the hiring process. You know I think that this board of directors while I don't speak for them you know I believe that we
093are all committed to being very deliberate and thorough in our search for the next superintendent. You know to ensure that we're finding the best possible leader to um you know lead the future of this district. Um so some of the proactive steps that have been taken by the board is number one um we have been working closely with our director of HR as well as our solicitor to curate a pool of candidates that can potentially serve as interim superintendent for the 2526 school year. So, um, the will of the board is to approach it from this direction and the goal is to identify someone who can maintain the momentum and stability of our district while we conduct a comprehensive search for a permanent successor. You know, and I would say that I would be remiss
094if I didn't mention um, you know, the support and the expertise of our administration. you know, as we've talked today in personnel, we've um, you know, have folks transitioning and folks that are going to be continuing to be key figures of our administration who will play a crucial role in the interim period to ensure that we continue to maintain momentum and stability of our district. Um, I will also make mention that it is the will of the board that we will be collaborating with the Montgomery County Intermediate Unit, the MCIU. Um, as Dr. right had given a little bit of an update around our you know we've talked about our partnership with the MCIU to discuss the process and next steps in posting for full-time superintendent. So the MCIU has a wealth of experience in
095these matters and will help provide some valuable guidance to ensure that we're following best practices again to identify the best fit for our future you know superintendent. So, um, you will hear over, I would say over the summer months some more updates with regards to timelines, but, um, you know, just want to make sure that the community knows that, um, you know, it is not lost on the board in terms of how we're going to proceed and we are going to make sure that we, um, do right by the district. Do not rush at anything and and take this process very seriously. So, thank you, Madam President. I thought we were also looking at search firms or not. We can talk about that with the MCIU in terms of best practices, but yes, we can
096talk about that. But I think that's nothing to do with the MCIU. That's just looking at search firms like we did before when Dr. Gooden left. Yep. We can talk about how we approach that full-time successor position, but we will definitely engage with the MCIU to understand the different ways in which we approach this because you're right, boards can do things a little differently. Okay. Looking forward to that discussion. Yep. You'll be there. All right. Any other questions or I'm sorry, board comment. All right. So then with that said, we will move on to public to be heard. This can be on any topic. If there's anyone that wishes to speak, please approach a podonium with your name and township of residence. Seeing as though no one is Oh, I'm sorry. Yes. Hello. Hello. Wonderful
097to see everyone again. My name is Addie Magcgar and I am the librarian at the Royersford Free Public Library. I have three things coming up for the library for the summer and then you won't see me for a while because I will be conducting summer reading. First of all, the library is heading to the Springboard Fifth Grade Center to present in tandem with the Spring City Library for career day. So, all three people that have ever expressed that they want to be a librarian to you, please send them my way because I would like to talk to them. Um, jokes aside, we are really looking forward to meeting with some of the fifth graders talking about what it takes to be a librarian because I don't think a lot of people really know that. They
098think you just walk in one day and they hire you and that's not really the case. Summer reading begins on June 9th and we are going to be using Beanstack again this year. B E S T A C. Weird name, I know. That is the app that we use to track summer reading minutes. We have stuff for kids, teens, and adults. So, please feel free to sign up. Come and visit the library, get our summer reading packet, or visit our website. It is also posted there. And then finally, speaking of the website, we have a brand new website that we have not updated since 1998, I am told. So, it's beautiful. We have worked with a firm to make this happen. It looks really great and it is royfree library.org. We also have a new
099domain, so go check it out. Like I said, find our summer reading packet and then come hang out with us in the summer. We have a lot of really cool stuff planned. Thank you everyone. Thank you very much. Any other board uh any other public comment? I'm sorry. Could you please sign in on the signin sheet there? Yep. Okay. Is there a motion to adjurnn? Second. [Music]